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Sunday, May 13, 2012

A controversial depiction of South Africa's polygamist President, Jacob Zuma, with his fly open and manhood exposed was one of the first works to sell when satirical artist Brett Murray’s new exhibition opened at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg this week.

A visiting art lover reportedly walked in off the street and bought the 1.85m-high piece, along with a few others. The work was priced at R136 000 in the exhibition catalogue, and depicts a portrait of Jacob Zuma in the pose of the Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist, Vladimir Lenin.

The buyer apparently lives in Europe and the work will be shipped off when the show closes.

Other artwork displayed in Murray’s latest exhibition can be viewed here.

I strongly doubt that inspiration for this piece was imparted on the mind of the artist exclusively because Zuma is a polygamist who has been married six times, and who is reportedly father to at least 18 children. Zuma’s 2005-2006 rape trail, during which he admitted to having unprotected sex with his accuser, and thereafter taking a shower to ‘prevent’ the risk of contracting HIV, must surely have also been a source of inspiration.

It will be interesting to see if Zuma is going to institute a defamation lawsuit against this artist, or not.

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Cape Town - The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday expressed outrage at an artist's depiction of President Jacob Zuma, saying the representation of its leader is distasteful and indecent.

Artist Brett Murray's controversial painting showing Zuma with his fly open and penis exposed, sold for R136 000 at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said the "disgusting and unfortunate display of the president" is insulting, and the party is taking the matter to court.

"We have this morning [on Thursday] instructed our lawyers to approach our courts to compel Brett Murray and Goodman Gallery to remove the portrait from display as well as from their website and destroy all printed promotional material.

"We have also detected that this distasteful and vulgar portrait of the president has been displayed on a weekend newspaper and its website, we again have instructed our lawyers to request the said newspaper to remove the portrait from their website."

Murray's so-called piece of art dents the image and the dignity of Zuma as both president of the ANC, president of the republic and as a human being, Mthembu said.

The ANC also took exception to a second portrait, which displays the party's logo "without the permission of the ANC", with the inscription "FOR SALE" on it.

"Both these portraits are a clear calculation to dismember and denigrate the symbols and the representative of the ANC, chief amongst them, the president of the ANC."

Mthembu said the ANC believes in both freedom of the press and artistic expression, but views "the vulgar portrait and the dismembering of the ANC logo by Brett Murray an abuse of freedom of artistic expression and an acute violation of our constitution, apart from being defamatory".

"That is why we have instructed our lawyers to approach the courts in-view of these violations and the defaming nature of the so-called President Zuma portrait titled The Spear," he said.

“The two men, 58 and 25 years of age, allegedly made crosses with red paint and smeared black paint respectively on the portrait.”

Earlier, the gallery's attorney said the second person was believed to be a 15-year-old.

The arrests came within an hour of the High Court in Johannesburg setting down an application by the ANC to have the painting removed from the gallery for hearing by a full bench on Thursday morning...

By the way…Not a word was mentioned in 2010 when a Black artist, Ayanda Mabulu, painted President Zuma and Bishop Tutu with their penises revealed. The painting called, “Better Poor Than a Rich Puppet” portrays Zuma with his penis in a crutch. The painting can be viewed here online on www.artvault.co.za.

Ayanda Mabulu is the same artist who felt ‘offended’ when three of his paintings, depicting a pig's head next to the old SA flag and Terre'Blanche's head on a platter was barred from an exhibition. See an older posting for more details.

BUT – when a White artist paints Zumu with his penis hanging out. The country goes into a week-long spasm of racist rage???!!!!

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